Zenko covers the U.S. national security debate and offers insight on developments in international security and conflict prevention.

A MQ-9 Reaper sits on a runway in Kandahar (Corporal Steven Follows, Courtesy U.S. Air Force).

Every day, the media reports a new story about the Obama administration’s policy of targeted killings, the vast majority of which are carried out by armed drones. On Monday, for instance, Newsweekran a piece by Daniel Klaidman that described President Obama’s “uneasy acceptance” of signature strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, and how he resisted administration officials who sought to expand the target set. And yesterday, the New York Times ran an excellent feature that described the discomfort of many within the administration regarding the seductive allure of seemingly cost-free drone strikes (which echoes what many current and former officials have told me for years). According to a former senior intelligence official, “It bothers me when [counterterrorism officials] say there were seven guys, so they must all be militants. They count the corpses and they’re not really sure who they are.” Read more »

The government also employed air strikes against rebellious tribes in Nihm and Arhab. Human rights observers and local residents accused the government of targeting villages of these tribesmen in both areas with aerial bombardment, leading to significant noncombatant casualties. The government also employed air strikes against AQAP and affiliated insurgents in Abyan, with some strikes hitting civilian areas. Although some accused the government of intentionally striking civilians in Abyan, most if not all noncombatant casualties from these bombardments were attributed to a lack of air force training and technical capability. Read more »

A MQ-1B Predator from the 414th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron in February 2012 at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey (Anthony Sanchelli/U.S. Air Force).

Today—eighty-nine days past its legal deadline—the State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011. The new, user-friendly interface allows you to find and read individual country chapters much more quickly and easily (and might explain the delay). For all its flaws, the report remains a must-read for its reporting and candor. It serves as a generally honest counter to the rosier assessments of U.S. partners and allies’ human rights practices. Read more »

A girl lights a candle in Bangkok (Chaiwat Subprasom/Courtesy Reuters).

One year ago today, with no strategy and no working knowledge of the blogosphere, I started this blog: Politics, Power, and Preventive Action. As I reread my first post, I was heartened to see that I characterized myself as “someone who is massively curious about foreign affairs” and concluded, “This should be fun!” Reflecting on this past year, blogging has been tremendously fun—although much more work than I had anticipated. Read more »

U.S. President Barack Obama holds a news conference on the second day of the NATO Summit in Chicago (Jim Young/Courtesy Reuters).

In his memoir Decision Points, President George W. Bush described his frustration after reading intelligence reports about a growing Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan in the summer of 2008. Bush recalls an encounter with a Navy Seal in Afghanistan in 2006, who said: “Mr. President, we need permission to go kick some ass inside Pakistan.” Read more »

The Obama administration’s strategy against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as articulated by White House counterterrorism czar John Brennan, is to assure that it is “destroyed and is eliminated.” In January 2010, Brennan warned: “We’ve seen over the past several years in Yemen is increasing strengthening of Al Qaida forces in Yemen. There are several hundred Al Qaida members there.” Read more »

Yemen's President Hadi meets with the top U.S. counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, in Sanaa, Ymen, on May 13, 2012 (Courtesy Reuters/Handout).

America’s Third War is escalating quickly in the skies over Yemen. Despite previous rebuffs from the White House, last month the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the CIA—which both run parallel drone campaigns in Yemen—were granted broad authority to conduct “signature strikes” against anonymous suspected militants, who are determined to support al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) based on the observed “patterns of suspicious behavior” from multiple intelligence sources. Read more »

Patrick Egan, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association for Unmanned Systems International: “The first time a drone Tases the wrong dude at a Phish concert, you’re going to have problems.” Read more »

About the Author

Red Team

In Red Team, Micah Zenko provides an in-depth investigation into the work of red teams, revealing the best practices, most common pitfalls, and most effective applications of these modern-day devil's advocates.

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